5 things your child will gain from participating in dance comps!

It’s almost competition time again! Term 2 and 3 at our studio are certainly busy months for our many students who participate in competitions. Next week, we have around 50 students heading off to Morwell Festival of Dance where they will have the opportunity to showcase what they have been working so hard on in their private lessons over the past couple of months.

During competition season, it is so important to take a moment to remind your children that it is not all about winning that coveted trophy, medal or certificate. While we certainly do celebrate these wins, we should also be celebrating the progress each and every student makes. A placing does not always define the performance. The day a child receives no placing for a solo may be the day they have performed the best (even better than the time they received 2nd place at the last comp)!

I’ve compiled a bit of a list of the additional things students take away from participating in dance comps. I’m sure there are many more. Please feel free to share additional advantages in our comments section. Happy dancing next week everyone!

Friendships – When you spend many days of the year at competitions, you are likely to develop strong friendships with other dancers from your studio and may even make some new friends with students from other studios.

Comradery – This is the feeling of being part of a ‘team’. So much can be gained from working with the same group of people towards a common goal. Troupe competition work allows kids to learn with their peers and strive to improve their dancing skills not only individually but as a group. In turn, the will learn to help each other, celebrate achievements together, ride the disappointments as a group and work towards achieving personal bests as a team. They will also learn to consider others’ feelings, understand the learning styles of others and gain performance skills such as spacial awareness and working in unison.

Increased confidence – Having to get up and perform in front of an audience takes guts; however, with regular practice, children will become more and more confident. Dance competitions provide numerous opportunities to do this. From this experience, students will increase their confidence not only as performers but as individuals in general. This will translate into their school life and is likely to help them with tasks such as oral presentations, debating, speeches and other tasks that will be assessed within a school environment.

Presentation skills – How wonderful is it for our children to learn how to do their own hair neatly from a young age? Dance comps require neat presentation of hair, make-up and costuming. From these experiences, children can learn to present themselves neatly. I remember learning to put my own hair in a bun at the age of 8! From then on, I always did my own hair for school too, which was great for Mum!

Resilience – When you dance in competitions children learn very quickly that they can’t always win. Even though your child may practise a lot and give 100% all of the time, many times they will still come away with no prize. This is a great life lesson for children and helps them to build resilience. Through these experiences, students will realise that things will not always go the way they may want them to and that is okay.